A couple of former DLA Piper lawyers could have gotten the firm in some hot water with some emails they sent when they were still with the firm in 2010.

The emails were made public last week in an ongoing lawsuit between DLA Piper and TransGas Development Systems. DLA sued TransGas for an unpaid $675,000 bill three years ago. The company countersued, claiming the firm overcharged it for services.

According to court documents, TransGas CEO Adam Victor offered up several emails between the former DLA lawyers that he says support his overbilling claims. One of the emails from DLA lawyer Erich Eisenegger read, “I hear we are already 200K over our estimate – that’s Team DLA!” Another email, penned by DLA lawyer Christopher Thomson, said, “Now Vince has random people working full time on random research projects in standard 'churn that bill, baby!' mode. That bill shall know no limits.” Thomson is referring to Vincent Roldan, another DLA lawyer.

DLA co-chairmen and co-managing partners shot back with a memo explaining the comments were nothing more than "an unfortunate attempt at humor by three former lawyers of the firm." The memo went on to say, "It is unfortunate that the unprofessional behavior of these lawyers by writing those emails has distracted attention away from the fact that a client refused to pay his bills, and is now being exploited by a party in litigation for their own advantage."

None of the three lawyers involved in the emails are currently employed with DLA.